LAL #053 — "Trust and Obey" with W. Michael Boyer

Law and Legitimacy

Norm is joined by Michael for this topical assessment of the Biden Administration's mandatory vaccine announcement.

Norm opens in classic fashion with an extended monologue in which he shares a few bits of heart-warming personal news, the emergent risk to larger businesses in the face of a burgeoning republic of virtue, the mythological interpretation of American history, the primary commitment of the American Bill of Rights, the current risk to substantive due process behind a communitarian bent, and the apparent death of classical individualism as seen through the pandemic regulations.

The episode then opens as Norm asks Michael to describe the general thrust of the Biden Administration's most recent proclamation pursuant to its "six-pronged national strategy" known as The Path Out of the Pandemic.

Norm and Michael thereafter volley ideas around the legal justification behind the activation of OSHA as the torch-bearer for applying and enforcing the mandate. Norm asks whether such an administrative appointment would survive legal scrutiny under the Chevron standard, and the two examine "safety" as a thematic backstop for an augmented enforcement of the federal police powers.

What do the known exemptions and exceptions to the forthcoming mandate do to the integrity of the mandate's constitutionality? Who bears the cost of the required weekly testing? Is the exercisable option to test weekly a viable and practical choice? When will the mandate become effective? There is no clear answer at present to any of these questions.

The "meat and potatoes" of this episode, however, is the discussion that ensues around the balance between personal sovereignty and the State's interest in the collective safety of its citizens. Michael offers his own frustration behind what he calls the "data monolith" that does not reflect a dynamic appraisal of public health and welfare.

Norm offers an interesting perspective by acknowledging that pandemic conditions are not new—5th century Athens, 6th century Rome, Europe's "Black Death", and 18th and 19th centuries' Cholera and Typhus reflect pandemic conditions as a normal risk of living. So what *is* new?

Find the books Norm recommends to his listeners here and here.

The episode ends with the simple of question: where is the line? Listen. Ponder. Share.

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